Officials squabble as underground fire burns near radioactive waste dump in St. Louis area

A fire is smoldering beneath a landfill in a densely populated suburb of St. Louis — and it has been there for five years.

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Underground landfill fires, or "smoldering events" as some officials call them, aren't rare. What makes the fire at the landfill in Bridgeton, Mo., so unusual is that it's less than a quarter of a mile from a large deposit of nuclear waste — with no barrier in its way. The radioactive legacy of St. Louis' role in the World War II atomic weapons program has unleashed Cold War-style nuclear paranoia in the area, as some residents debate what kind of gas masks to buy or whether to move away. More...

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